Saga of City College's Porta Potti bill

CITY COLLEGE OF S.F.

Stephanie Rice, Special to The Chronicle

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, May 5, 2010

It took several months and multiple phone calls to City College of San Francisco officials, but the bill for Porta Potties brought in for the college's high-profile "garage sale" fundraiser last fall has finally been paid.

For months, a collection agent for United Site Services, the Porta Potti company, left messages with the college's accounting department, seeking the $292.77 rental payment, college records show.

Valerie Moore, United Site Services collection specialist, said she called repeatedly and left messages, but no one from the college ever called back.

The college owed the San Jose company for the rental of three units for the Oct. 24 garage sale, a widely publicized attempt to raise money. The benefit was created to offset huge cuts in state aid, but ended up raising only $4,647.17.

Records show Jim Keenan, the college's director of buildings and grounds, placed the order for the Porta Potties. But when the bill came, the college balked. College officials told officers at the foundation created to support the college that it was responsible for the bill.

The college and the foundation have been at odds since last year when former Chancellor Philip Day and two aides were charged with felonies in connection with a financial scandal. The foundation blamed the college for the alleged abuses, some of which involved the foundation, and severed financial ties with the district earlier this year.

Foundation officials initially refused to pay the Porta Potti bill.

"The foundation has not been covering expenses incurred from the garage sale," Development Director Armen Carpetian wrote to the college March 11. "Our involvement was to process in-kind and cash gifts."

The foundation decided to pay only after a reporter inquired about the bill, college administrators said. The college has sent in a check for the overdue bill, according to its accounting department, and is expecting to be reimbursed by the foundation.

Janice Gow Pettey, the foundation's chief administrative officer, said she decided the foundation will pay the invoice to resolve the issue.

"This bill has been running around for a few months," she said. "The foundation is going to pay it, because it has just become a pain in the neck."

Moore, the collection specialist, confirmed Tuesday that the check was received this week.

The Porta Potti issue isn't the only squabble between the cash-strapped college and the foundation that exists to support it. College faculty members are in the final stages of choosing fall 2010 scholarship winners, but say they can't notify students until they get a guarantee that the foundation will pay the nearly $77,000 in scholarships come fall.

Although records show the college notified the foundation in January that it would need the funds, the foundation has yet to confirm that it will provide the money.

"It's quite frustrating," said Ellen Wall, scholarship committee chairwoman and English instructor. "Students need this money to buy their books for next semester."

Pettey said the college will need to provide an exact amount before the foundation can make a commitment. "The foundation will do what it has always done and will continue to provide scholarship money," she said.